Tazara set to land on 1.6 mil tonnes cargo haulage deal

  

A section of a railway line in Tanzania. The country plans to upgrade its rail network in the next five years. PHOTO | FILE

Written by FINNIGAN WA SIMBEYE

STRUGGLING Tanzania Zambia Railways Authority (TAZARA) may soon sign a lucrative concession agreement to ship over 1.6 million tonnes of cargo between Dar es Salaam and New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia starting this year.

Tazara Public Relations Officer, Regina Tarimo said the management of the railway line was studying the DSM Corridor Group offer and was likely to welcome the deal which may help revive its cargo business.

“It’s a promising deal for our company which needs more cargo shipments annually,” she noted.

The DSM Corridor Group Chief Executive Officer, Erik Kok told the ‘Daily News’ last week that his company is constructing a dry port at Kisarawe to escape from the traffic congested Dar es Salaam port.

“By taking cargo to Kisarawe dry port and then through Kibaha by trucks will reduce time and costs compared to the current route,” said Mr Kok whose company handled over 1.6 million tons of cargo last year which is over 10 per cent of the 14 million tons handled by Dar es Salaam port.

Kok said DSM Corridor Group is in talks with Tazara management to get a deal that will enable cargo from Kisarawe to be shipped to DR Congo, Malawi and Zambia to reduce freight charges.

Tazara has capacity of transporting some five million metric tonnes of cargo per annum, but currently only handles less than 400,000 metric tonnes due to poor infrastructure and competition from trucks.

It is expected that the DSM Corridor deal will enable the cash strapped railway company improve its books of accounts. The DSM Corridor Group CEO said last year they used Tazara to ship copper from Zambia to Dar es Salaam port which went smoothly.

He commended the government and development partners for launching the 593 million US dollars over 1.1bn/- Dar es Salaam Maritime Gateway Modernisation (DMGM) project.

“We hope that the project will address the issue of infrastructure improvement especially roads from the port such as that of Gate 3 and also those going to ICDs (Inland Container Depots),” he noted while stressing that expansion and modernisation of the country’s prime port should be given priority.

He said poor roads are prohibiting cargo trucks from carrying maximum capacity of their load because of fears of accidents.

In a recent statement, DSM Corridor Group said it was undertaking the construction of an inland bulk handling terminal with the purpose of handling different bulk commodities and dangerous goods.

The company has acquired 80,000 square metres of land to develop. The first warehouse of 4,500 square metres is well underway and the new terminal will be linked to Tazara railway system